A radar system emits radio waves that are reflected by an object in a form of a reflected signal that is detected by the radar system. Based on the round trip time duration and the angle of the reflected signal, the location of the object may be determined. In training scenarios, instead of using actual objects, it is more practical and cost effective to use simulated radar objects. The simulated radar objects may be generated using radar signature modeling tools that emulate the radar object.
Chaff is used by aircraft to evade hostile forces or by ballistic missiles to mask the objects in the missile complex. For example, the chaff is released by an aircraft and used to create radar objects to draw enemy fire away from the aircraft. Generally, chaff includes metallic structures that are easily detected by radar. To simulate chaff in the past, extensive lookup tables were used to form a single instance of radar data of simulated chaff. These prior art approaches are time consuming, even on modern computers, so that chaff cannot be generated in real-time for radar simulation and Monte Carlo testing.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a missile 12 includes a chaff dispenser 14. The chaff dispenser releases (dispenses) chaff packages 16a, 16b, 16c (called herein “pucks”) into the air. Generally, the pucks are dispensed at different times. The pucks 16a-16c disperse a cloud of chaff 18. A radar 20 detects the chaff from the pucks 16a-16c and the missile 12 so that it appears to a user there are more missiles so that more enemy munitions are directed towards the chaff than the missile.